I live in London, arguably the current world financial capital, but I'd have to be fairly desperate to work for a bank. (Not suggesting I'm the very best, of course, but rather taking banker money is like being a whore.)
- Correcting the interviewer on C++ intricacies IN the interview. - Very poor process of dev/test/release cycles - Management of 'uptime' by having c++ devs on call 24/7 with Limo's, hotel rooms etc but no thought to proper testing, regression or postmortem. - Managers that managed by fear and intimidation - People who were clearly there because they were the only ones who could understand the shambles of code they'd written and were paid astronomically to not leave. In general they were mathematicians who were presumably great at maths and poor at engineering software.
While they were both very good and have moved on to more interesting ventures they earned more in a few years of pain then they would have in 20 years of game development so it was worth it for them.
What if you're a barber who cuts a banker's hair, is that "like being a whore?" What if you sell software to a banker, or you're a nanny for the children of a banker? Also: do you have any respect for actual women who engage in prostitution?
No.
Ditto for drug dealers.
But how on earth can you justify blanket-ly having no respect for the women themselves that engage in prostitution?
You said you have no respect for the WOMEN who engage in prostitution. Why?
My point about drug dealers is that I can see having no respect for the person that deals drugs as they themselves produce harm (they could sell to kids).
The other jobs you mention have different power relations compared to the employee / employer relationship, and it's the dynamics of that relationship in investment banks, and their culture, that disgusts me.
Would it be whoring if you took money from Zynga instead? Groupon? Facebook? Yelp? Or any number of other disreputable companies that have engaged in allegedly immoral/illegal behavior?
FWIW I don't even work in banking.
"The technology people employed at these companies are considered to be the very best..."
Who considers these people 'the very best'? Compsci majors? The hiring manager? Of course people in that sector are going to say "we only hire the best", but at best they're only hiring the best who bother to apply or that can be recruited. Very very very likely "the best" (by other measures) stay the hell away from finance.
In some industries, having extreme expertise with specific algorithms and other very deep-knowledge of specific business rules coupled with top-notch programming skills is going to be required for some tasks. Outside of that, by and large, superhuman math/algo skills aren't needed as much as other broader skill sets (inter-departmental relations, listening, etc).
It's the mentality of the financial sector: If you spend the most money, you are going to get the very best. If you earn the most money, you are the best. They assume that because they pay more than anybody else, they obviously must have the best talent. It's probably unfathomable to a lot of these people that there are motivations for developers other than financial ones.